SitePilot

The Krones Group, headquartered in Neutraubling, Germany, plans, develops and manufactures machines and complete lines for the fields of process, filling and packaging technology. Its product portfolio is rounded off by information technology, factory planning and products from Krones’ subsidiaries as intralogistics, valve production etc. Every day, millions of bottles, cans, and special-shaped containers are handled on lines from Krones, particularly in breweries, the soft-drinks sector and at producers of still or sparkling wines and spirits, but also in the food and luxury-goods industries, plus the chemical, cosmetics and pharmaceutical sectors.

Since being founded in 1951, Krones has become far more than a traditional-style machinery and line manufacturer: it has evolved into an all-round vendor for its clients. Mechanical engineering, line expertise, process engineering, microbiology and information technology have here been harmoniously integrated for optimum synergies. Nowadays, Krones is synonymous with holistic systems engineering.

Krones’ success is based on some few but crucial strategies: specialised knowledge of mechanical engineering and the customer sectors involved, a technical lead over its competitors driven by continuingly high expenditure on research and development, production facilities featuring state-of-the-art equipment operating to the most stringent of quality standards, backed up by worldwide 24/7 service support, and most especially by the skills of its highly motivated staff. More than 3,730 full and utility patents bear witness to the company’s innovative potential.

Worldwide, Krones employs 12,756 people. Approximately 90 per cent of its products are sold abroad. Consolidated sales in 2014 totalled 2.953 billion euros. The group includes not only Krones AG (M-DAX), but also more than 80 sales and service companies.

Barifill

Space-saving and efficient – the Kosme Barifill

The craft beer culture is growing inexorably. In addition to the original types of beer, products with new flavours and taste combinations are being created from North America to China. They are being sold not only in cans, but in glass and PET bottles as well. For bottlers who need an efficient, space-saving solution in the small output range, Kosme offers the Barifill.

The electromagnetically controlled Krones VKP filling valves installed in the Barifill ensure fast processing without any foaming, and thus preserve the product’s original quality.

User also have different variants of the VKP filling valve – responsively tailored to their particular needs. The VKPV valve is predestined for bottling beer. Several pre-evacuation steps and flushing of the bottle with ring bowl gas minimise oxygen pick-up during filling.

For bottling still and sparkling wines, the right choice is the VKPV-CF valve, enabling the fill level to be corrected after filling by injecting pure CO2 via a correction channel into the bottle’s neck and the overfilled product to be forced back into the ring bowl. This filling system thus assures maximised fill level accuracy and minimised product losses.

Salient features of the new VKPV-CF-AL valve also include CO2 injection and automatic fill level adjustment in the bottle. The valve programme additionally offers various options for filling PET containers.

The Kosme Barifill can be fitted with a closer for crowns, screw caps or natural corks. In addition, several closer turrets can be easily combined one behind the other.

To facilitate dispatch, erection, maintenance and cleaning, the bases can be modularised. The tilted Tabletec tabletop provides the bottler with substantial advantages in terms of cleaning and maintenance. All liquids automatically drain off over the tilted surface, and there are no dirt-trapping corners in which product residues might collect. This enhances the microbiological safety of the filling process. Thanks to the modularised construction, there is also an alternative option for a gable-type tabletop in hygienic design.

The product is fed in from below out of the ring bowl through a central manifold. An infeed worm ensures an even inflow of bottles into the filler’s carousel. The newly designed, compact-size valve group is available in a manual version, or a fully automatic variant on request – the CIP operation is then controlled directly from the operator’s panel.

An isobaric filler with electro-pneumatically controlled filling valve functions and modularised construction, the compactly dimensioned Barifill offers leading-edge technology on a minimised footprint. The Barifill is thus ideally suited for small and mid-tier breweries or beverage bottlers.

Craftmate

The Krones Craftmate can filler

The craft brewers’ new friend

In recent years, the number of craft breweries worldwide has soared. In North America, this segment is booming. Some of these new breweries are meanwhile also investing in bottling and canning lines of their own, with beer in cans playing a major role here. These developments are the reason for expanding Krones’ portfolio of fillers to include a craft beer can filler for the low output range. The Craftmate is a modularised volumetric model with 24 filling valves, and as a stand-alone machine in its own right constitutes a welcome addition to Krones’ range of kit. The pitch circle diameter is 1,080 millimetres. It is suitable for both small breweries and craft breweries.

The Craftmate scores highly in terms of high flexibility for its users. The filler has been designed for filling cans in the standard 211/202 format, but can also be optionally equipped to handle the 204/202 to 300/209 formats. Depending on the can volume and product parameters involved, the machine’s output lies between 6,000 and 18,000 cans per hour.

This new model has in some points been deliberately designed for a simpler construction than the can fillers produced by Krones hitherto. When it’s cleaned, for example, the CIP cups are inserted manually, and an automatic external foam-cleaning feature or hot-water gush-type jetting can be integrated as options.

Thanks to its innovative engineering, a filler can now for the first time be operated without a lifting cam, thus reducing the number of components and facilitating access to the machine. The filler is in open design and thus easy to clean as well. The cleaning media run down the sloping table-top into a defined drain and thus cannot collect in puddles.

The new can filler makes no compromises when it comes to the stringent requirements for oxygen pick-up, filling accuracy, CO2 consumption and hygiene. The Craftmate is here fully the equal of its high-speed counterparts. The client receives a machine in field-proven Krones quality, backed up by the associated service support.

In order to minimise the transportation costs, the development people at Krones have also made sure that the Craftmate, together with the seamer, can be shipped in a sea container. The user thus receives a machine that is “out of the box” for first-time brewers. For more extensive requirements in the higher output range, the familiar Krones can fillers from the existing families are available.

Eight craft breweries have already ordered a Craftmate from Krones, three of them in the USA, two in Canada and three in Europe.

MicroCube

MicroCube – the ideal tool for the craft brewer

To translate their far-out flavour ideas into marketable reality, craft brewers need a reliable tool if they are to produce their beers at a consistently high level of quality. Krones has accordingly developed the MicroCube brewing system specifically for craft brewers running brew sizes of five or ten hectolitres. MicroCube is a complete brewing system, comprising brewhouse and fermentation cellar. The concept also includes the supply systems for water, heat and refrigeration. All shipping packages fit inside a container. The vessels’ diameters measure not more than 1,200 millimetres, the valve and pump module measures 1,000 x 1,000 x 2,150 millimetres. The entire scope of delivery can be accommodated in three to four 40-foot containers. The pre-assembled modules are installed and commissioned within a minimised timeframe, while their compact dimensions enable them to be erected on a very small footprint.

State-of-the-art technology for small brew sizes

The electronically supported manual operator control concept is extremely flexible and easy to operate. For the milling work, a two-roller grist mill with a grist output of 500 kilograms per hour is provided, featuring manual malt feed and grist removal. The mill provides a simple milling gap adjustment feature for optimum grist results.

For the mashing process, the mash-lauter tun is equipped with a wall heating feature. For the lautering process, it utilises the field-proven false floor familiar from large-tank designs. A pitot tube enables the lautering process to be manually regulated. A wall sight glass for monitoring the first-wort penetration and a flow meter for the mashing and sparging water have also been integrated.

The whirlpool is designed for optimum heating rates, with wall and base heating. A Stromboli riser, moreover, intensifies the evaporation of unwanted aromatics. A scaled sight glass in the tank wall is used to determine the contents. There is also an option for integrating a simple vapour suppression feature by means of spray heads in the vapour pipe or a vapour condenser for producing warm water.

The warm water is stored in a water tank with wall heating, temperature display and a “full” signal. The high-speed steam generator also supplied produces 50 kilograms of saturated steam an hour. For the brew size of five hectolitres, a 50-kilogram unit is provided, while for a brew size of ten hectolitres twice the quantity of steam is required. The refrigeration capacity needed is met by a compact cooling system. It chills glycol, stored in the glycol tank, for cooling the tanks and the wort. With a brew size of five hectolitres, a cooling capacity of twelve kilowatts is installed, while for ten hectolitres the figure is about 17 kilowatts. For a CIP system, clients can choose between a 1- or 2-tank version. The standard working procedure features a non-circulatory CIP process with vessel-based supply.

For the fermentation tanks, clients can choose between net capacities of 5, 10, 20, 25 or 50 hectolitres, with wall and cone cooling. Each of the tanks is fitted with a bunging apparatus, plus temperature and pressure displays, and secured against vacuum and overpressure.

One2Brew

One2Brew - compact, fast, mobile

With the One2Brew concept from Krones, a new brewery can be built within an implementation phase lasting less than a year from project kick-off to the first bottle off the line. The brewery’s process areas are divided up into functional units, supplied in prefabricated form, and put together in “plug and play” mode to form a coherently harmonised whole. Since engineering, manufacture and erection take up significantly less time, a planned brewery project can be completed within a minimised timeframe, and the turnkey brewery handed over in just eleven months after the kick-off meeting. With a comparable standard project plan, the period required would be approximately 18 months. One2Brew means fast entry into new lines of business plus lucrative markets, and at the same time constitutes an attractive investment in latest-generation technology. The innovative technologies used guarantee maximised product quality coupled with exceptionally low energy and media consumption levels.

The compact dimensions minimise the size of the site required. Moreover, the concept offers mobility for equipment and buildings, for multiple use or for resale.

One2Brew can handle malt, maize or rice. Its total annual capacity is 300,000 of sales-quality beer.

With the One2Brew concept from Krones, a new brewery can be built within an implementation phase lasting less than a year from project kick-off to the first bottle off the line. The brewery’s process areas are divided up into functional units, supplied in prefabricated form, and put together in “plug and play” mode to form a coherently harmonised whole. Since engineering, manufacture and erection take up significantly less time, a planned brewery project can be completed within a minimised timeframe, and the turnkey brewery handed over in just eleven months after the kick-off meeting. With a comparable standard project plan, the period required would be approximately 18 months. One2Brew means fast entry into new lines of business plus lucrative markets, and at the same time constitutes an attractive investment in latest-generation technology. The innovative technologies used guarantee maximised product quality coupled with exceptionally low energy and media consumption levels.

The compact dimensions minimise the size of the site required. Moreover, the concept offers mobility for equipment and buildings, for multiple use or for resale.

One2Brew can handle malt, maize or rice. Its total annual capacity is 300,000 of sales-quality beer.

SitePilot

The production operation in focus

All information at a glance with SitePilot Line Diagnostics

The users of production management systems want fast and simple access to illuminatingly meaningful information on their production lines. Individually and role-specifically compiled, transmitted with proactive situation-responsiveness, easily comprehensible, flexibly communicated, and displayed on any suitable device ‒ these are the salient requirements that need to be met for modern-day information provision And this is precisely what Krones has accomplished, in the shape of SitePilot creating a brand that synergises all IT solutions under a single roof, and provides them with a thematic structure. It incorporates a comprehensive kit of software modules, containing appropriate solutions for all tasks along the entire value creation chain – from production to logistics. All SitePilot software modules follow a consistent architecture and a harmonised design concept. It is based predominantly on web technology, and can thus be used on mobile terminals as well.

The first solution immediately available in this context is SitePilot Line Diagnostics, which supersedes the LDS line documentation system used hitherto. Line Diagnostics is an ideal tool for providing information in the filling and packaging categories. The software is a state-of-the-art creation, featuring intuitive operator control, and supplying its users with easily comprehensible, situationally relevant data in a proactively role-tailored mode. On the basis of significantly compressed and nonetheless easily comprehensible information, (key ratios), the quality, performance or cost indicators of individual machines or even complete lines are displayed for the operator’s attention.

Under an Early Adopter Program, several selected users have since May 2015 been testing the new solution. With the market launch during the first quarter of 2016, Krones will be offering SitePilot Line Diagnostics for new installations and upgrades.